The present invention relates to a method and a device for the management of lactating animals such as cows, sheep, goats, buffaloes, llamas, camels, dromedaries, yaks, elks, horses and the like.
The invention may be employed in the management of conventionally milked animal herds. The invention may also be employed in the management of machine-milked or semi-automatically or automatically milked animals. Employment is also conceivable in herds where placement of the teat cups to the animal teats occurs for example semi-automatically or fully automatically or robot-assisted and/or computer-controlled.
Devices and methods for the management of lactating animals have become known in the prior art. There are for example manually operated systems for the management of animals where e.g. cube-shaped pegs representing an individual animal are pinned on a circular disk. Each peg is provided with a unique number for identifying the animal. Such an estrus disk illustrates the state of an animal throughout an entire year. Such manual estrus disks exist in different types, one of which will be explained in detail below.
One version of such an estrus disk may for example be provided with a mark on top for parturition. In this example the peg representing an animal that has just calved will be pinned into the top on the day of calving. The disk will then be rotated by 1° each day such that the disk will complete one full rotation in the course of one year.
A fixed, radial line for insemination is provided at a specific interval of days after calving. Animals reaching said line should be observed for indication of estrus and if estrus occurs, inseminated.
After insemination the respective peg is marked with an “inseminated” symbol and manually reset to the angular position of the insemination line even if the interval since the calving date is longer than the period corresponding to the angular distance between calving line and insemination line. From then on, time will be metered from the insemination date.
At a specific number of days after insemination, another radial line is provided. Inseminated animals passing said line should be tested for pregnancy. If the test shows an animal to be not pregnant, another insemination should be carried out and then the peg for the corresponding animal be reset on the insemination line.
Such estrus disk will provide the farmer with a quick overview of his entire herd. A disadvantage is that system maintenance and updates are very time demanding.